The man admired by many Spaniards as the finest bullfighter ever seen is recovering in hospital after being gored by a bull during his comeback from retirement.
José Antonio Morante, more commonly known by his matador’s moniker Morante de la Puebla, suffered the injury on Sunday, while bullfighting in Seville. Video footage showed him being lifted off his feet as the bull’s horn punctured his buttock, before colleagues drew the animal away from him by distracting it with their capes.
After initially being in a very serious condition with the 10-centimetre wound, which perforated his rectum, Morante is now recovering.
“It was the most painful goring I have ever suffered in my career,” he told El Mundo newspaper from his hospital bed. “I felt enormous pain and I was very scared because I could tell that the bull had gored me and I thought I was bleeding a lot.”
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Morante said, after realising he was in fact not bleeding profusely, he “relaxed quite a bit” despite the pain.
Known for his bushy sideburns and far-right politics, the 46-year-old Morante has become arguably Spain’s best-known matador in recent years. Rubén Amón, who wrote a book about him, believes he is the greatest Spain has seen.
“He treads on more dangerous ground than anyone,” he said. “That perfect hybrid of the most powerful, bravest and most aesthetically pleasing bullfighter places Morante out of this world.”
Last October, after triumphing in Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring, Morante appeared to announce his retirement, symbolically chopping off his ponytail. Bullfighting journalist Antonio Lorca said the gesture had left the bullfighting world “orphaned”, given the lack of comparable heavyweight figures.
Morante had withdrawn on several occasions before only to return each time and his comeback, making two appearances at Seville’s prestigious April festival before his goring at the same event, had delighted fans.
Morante has been open about his lifelong struggles with mental illness and how he has been undergoing electroconvulsive therapy to treat it.
“I have thought about death as a relief, but I can’t do it, I have a family and responsibility,” he has said.
Morante has also been one of the highest-profile supporters of the far-right Vox party, which, he said, “has provided hope not only for the world of bullfighting, but for everyone who depends on the customs of their country, the traditions, like hunting.” He is a close friend of the party’s leader, Santiago Abascal.
The last professional bullfighter to die in the ring in Spain was the 29-year-old Víctor Barrio, who was gored in the chest during a bullfight in the city of Teruel in 2016.
A poll taken last year by the BBVA Foundation found 77 per cent of Spaniards found the pastime “unacceptable”.
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